ANGOLA — If everybody walked on water justice wouldn’t even be a word but when the punishment fits the crime, criminal offenses seldom get repeated.
That is why 12 high school students from across Steuben County came together Tuesday evening in Steuben County’s historic courthouse to serve as jurors in Teen Court. The Court is part of Indiana’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) and conducts trials with a jury of young peers for low-level misdemeanors and first-time offenders. Thirty-one counties participate in the Initiative, including Steuben and LaGrange, while DeKalb and Noble do not.
“It’s kind of hard,” said River Spreuer. “Sometimes we already know the accused from school or know about them. It’s hard to push for what we need to know and remain unbiased but we have to. It’s not really fair if we don’t. If they did something wrong and feli bad about it they don’t need a harsh punishment.”
The problem
Harsh punishment includes time at the Allen County Juvenile Center and, with a cost of $150 per day for incarceration, that is harsh on taxpayers: A standard misdemeanor conviction carries a two-week sentence that costs $2,100. The one-year sentence for a felony conviction costs $54,750. If a capital crime conviction requires a 15-year-old to stay until he turns 21, that will cost approximately $328,500. By comparison, Indiana’s in-state tuition at a public university costs $99.82 per day but with a decent academic scholarship and a work-study job, you can knock that down to about $56 per day.
“Before we started JDAI in 2015, the county spent $100,000 per year on juvenile detention,” Steuben County’s JDAI Coordinator Kathy Armstrong said. “Last year it was just $250.
“We were detaining the wrong crowd,” she said. “In the ‘olden days’ (before JDAI) kids were sent to detention for minor offenses. Typically, they could be apprehended on a weekend and spend one to two nights there. Once the detention hearing occurred, which had to be within 48 hours, they were released to back to their parents.”
The data shows the program works
Detention from domestic calls also dropped from 80 to 4. “We don’t detain for that anymore; we intervene to de-escalate and use kinship care,” Armstrong said. “Spend a night at grandma’s so every one can cool off and address the issues in the morning.”
Armstrong’s data showed that in 2015, before the joining the Initiative, the county incarcerated 25 kids. Last year that dropped 88% to three. LaGrange County incarcerated 22 kids in 2015 but in 2023 that dropped 82% to four.
DeKalb County’s Chief Probation Officer Michael Lapham said his annual budget for juvenile detention is $25,000 “but it feels like we exceed that every other year.
“We’re not a part of JDAI but we follow a ton of their objectives because a lot of positives come out of it,” he said. “We get a number of grants through the Indiana Department of Correction, but not through JDAI.”
The challenge
Lapham’s biggest challenge is finding available bed space at Juvenile Detention Centers. “It’s getting more and more difficult,” he said. “Community safety and safety of the child is always paramount. Sometimes we’ll use the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center. It’s five plus hours one way but sometimes it’s a necessity.
“We started looking into electronic monitoring but there are a lot of statutes that restrict it,” he said. He does not want to see the cost be a financial burden on families.
Requests were made to officials in Noble and Allen counties but KPC Media did not receive comments.
A solution
“Teen Court was implemented in September 2021,” Armstrong said. “We’ve tried 43 cases and 57% of those were related to alcohol or marijuana possession. Forty-two youth were diverted from detention and 39 completed the conditions imposed with no new offenses. One re-offended and one had to be removed from their home due to mental health issues.
“We’re not saying drugs are OK, but marijuana is legal on two borders,” Armstrong said. “Why ruin a kid’s record for life?” Michigan legalized recreational use in 2018 and Ohio legalized it in 2023.
The other cases in Teen Court included run-aways, truancy, low-level battery from school-yard fights, driving without obtaining a license and shoplifting/ petty theft usually involving a cell phone.
In three years, Teen Court has saved county taxpayers an estimated $81,900.
“Teen Court meets the second Tuesday of each month when cases are on docket,” Armstrong said. “The kids are trained to ask open-ended questions; not just settle for yes or no answers. They want to get the whole story and uncover what happened.
The offenders “are not bad kids,” she said. “Most of them are just doing what we did when we were young but they got caught.
“Absolutely there are some who are a threat to public safety and we work to get them off the streets but that is incredibly rare,” she said. Steuben County Superior Court has one 16-year-old on the docket this year for Level 3 felony battery with serious bodily injury.
How it works
Teen Court is an official legal proceeding with Deputy Prosecutor David Brown presenting charges and Attorney Abbe Vetter serving as Judge. Both donate their time while the student jurors get compensated $30 per month from a grant-funded stipend. Every offender meets with a probation officer for a risk assessment but all proceedings are confidential and no records are kept if the terms of sentencing have been met.
“All of these cases, we’ve read through at the Prosecutor’s office,” Brown said. “It’s only for those who are eligible and deserve a second chance. We work off the restorative justice model; righting wrongs against victims and the community, repairing harm and taking responsibility for harmful acts.
“I think this is more effective than regular court where kids have to face one more adult telling them what to do,” Brown said. “We’ve seen remarkably low recidivism. They don’t come back for new offenses.”
For Vetter, who worked as a Certified Legal Intern with the Barry University Juvenile Defense Clinic in Miami, Florida, before passing the bar and moving back to Indiana it is all about the moment of self-realization.
“We do a legitimate hearing with questions and answers because everything is not always what it looks like on paper,” she said. “The jury decides the outcome and they have a wide range of options: youth oriented probation classes, community service, a formal apology. Sometimes they have to come back and serve as jurors themselves.
“The best part is seeing kids really acknowledge the effects of bad choices and realize that does not define them or their future,” she said. “When that happens we don’t see them back here as adults.”
“The first time I knew it worked, we had two identical cases but with different consequences tailored to each one,” Brown said. “That’s when the lights came on. I don’t even remember their names, which is also a sign of success because they never came back. Getting through, helping them get on a different path with better choices and more options; I see that.”
Vetter concluded “That’s what we do here.
“The County talks about growth and progress but they tend to focus on infrastructure and economics,” she said. “For me, the best way to ensure a positive future is by investing in kids. They are a part of the community and they need to know we invest in them as well.”